Death Seed-class Invasion Dreadnaught
"Just as the Death Seed Plagues ravaged the galaxy, so shall any fleet lead by these Dreadnaughts. When they bite, they never let go. Where they are planted, they produce a crop of death. None could stop us, and victory would be assured." : -Lord Davak, commenting on his vision of Sith conquest using his design. The Death Seed was a Dreadnaught designed and build by Lord Davak and Lord Moradin for the purpose of planetary inasion with the intent of establishing a permanant and formitable presence on the target world. The design made it all the way through to a fully functional prototype and put through all levels of testing and simulation, yet was never deployed. Characteristics Dimentions: (disk shaped) *Height: 1.0 km *Diameter: 6.2 km Weapons: *Outer Gun Ring 1: Heavy Duel Turbolasers (160); Quad laser Cannons (160) *Outer Gun Ring 2: Ion Cannons (100); Quad Laser Cannons (100) *Inner Gun Ring 1: Duel Heavy Turbolasers (50); Flak Guns (25); Quad Laser Cannons (25) *Inner Gun Ring 2: Ion cannons (4); Quad Laser Cannons (12) *Center w-165 Planetary Turbolaser (1) *Outer Missile Ring: Assault Concussion Missile Tubes (40: 10 missiles per launcher) *Inner Missile Ring: Assault Concussion Missile Tubes (12: 10 missiles per launcher) *Landing Gun Ring: Duel Turbolasers (120) Standard Compliment: *40 squadrons of TIE series Star Fighters (480: various designs, via 4 dorsal hangars); *Ground Troops (25,000) *Saber-class Fighter Tanks (120) *T4-B Heavy Tanks (40) *T2-B Repulsar Tanks (60) *LAAT gunships (48) *AT-AT (80) *AT-ST (120) Hyperdrive Rating: *Primary: Class 2.0 *Secondary: Class 8.0 Propultion: *Primary Thruster Banks (5) *Secondary Thruster Banks (12) *Maneuvering Thruster Banks (16) *Heavy Repulsarlift Blocks (8) Sheilding: * DefenStar 5000 shield (1: only deployed while landed; modified to cover 3/10 the area at double the power); *ISD Shield Projectors (8) *Backup Shield Projectors (8) Crew: *Gunners (2000) *Other (13,000) 'Function' The Death Seed was designed for the specific purpose of breaking through orbiting fleets and conducting extended ground invasion and coordination missions. Its huge ground compliment has the ability to exit the ship from any of 4 (or more if outfitted) landing ramps in any direction and 4 (or more if outfitted) repulsarlift hangars for various repulsarlift vehicles and tanks. The Landing Gun Ring is able to fire outward and downward to clear the imediate area of enemies, as well as continue supressing the enemy while the troops and armor quickly deploy. The two Outer Gun Rings have a significant range are able to act in an artillery role and fire well into any city or defensive fortification in a large area around the Dreadnaught. The Landing Ring, an approximate 1.1 km strip around the edge of the Dreadnaught, is where the troops and vehicles are stored and readied for quick deployment. This ring is divided up into 8 blocks that are interchangable and have either a block with a repulsarlift hangar, or a landing ramp with ground troops and other armor that must have contact with the surface to function. you can equip the Death Seed with many different compinations. Is is possible to have all 8 segments be landing ramps, or all 8 be the repulsarlift hangars, or any combination in between. The standard design is a 4/4 split. Each block also has a small power source on it's own, though most of the time it draws directly from the Core Ship's power. This landing ring, once it reaches the surface, never leaves again because it is too heavy. It remains on the surface and can act in many roles, such as a space port (there is an aproximately 26 km squared area inside for landing craft), a customs building, or a fortress and military garison. This ring has most of the Dreadnaught's turbolasers and laser cannons so it is still well protected against land and air attacks. The Core Ship is the inner portion of the Death Seed that is able to reach orbit again and never changes its function. This is what contained most of the power source and crew, including the DefenStar 5000 Shield projector that is used while the ground troops are deploying. Once ground operations are concluded, using 8 huge repulsarlift blocks, it detaches from the Landing Ring. Once it gets enough atmosphere underneath it, its thrusters then come online and it can blast into open space. It is then able to be refitted with another Landing Ring and continue operations elsewhere. History A prototype was build that was fully armed and functional, and put through all levels of testing and development. It was even deployed in a simulated battle on the planet Bimmisaari. The Landing Ring was left and formed the basis of a starport not far from the Sith Academy on the planet, though the Core Ship eventually left the system. However, at the last minute the project was cancled due to the unfeasability of producing replacement Landing Rings at a fast enough rate to keep the ship in service, since only one shipyard had the designs and it was barely able to construct it to begin with. It was determined that, without the full resources of a faction to back up the project it could not continue at its current size, and to reduce the size of the project would render it useless. The ultimate fate of the prototype, including the design schematics and if the Core Ship was refit with another Landing Ring and Compliment, is unknown. It never saw live action. Weakness While very powerful, the Death Seed had a few significant weaknesses. The vast majority of the weapons are on the upper side of the ship. This makes the lower portion of the disk-shaped ship very vulnerable, including it's engines. While it does have a large compliment of fighters, because of the ground assault nature of the dreadnaught, they are often better suited to combat in atmosphere rather than the void of space. Both of these make it highly vulnerable when in transit to a target, especially when entering atmosphere, and relies heavily on support ships to keep any assaults at bay. Because of the odd shape and design, however, it is capable of odd and unpredictable maneuvers which can, if applied correctly, can diminish this flaw. When it has reached the surface of a planet, It is significantly harder to destroy. The DefenStar 5000 Shield protects it from all but the most powerful orbital strikes, however it is semi-permiable. HIgh energy and high velocity attacks and vehicles will be destroyed, but something slow moving, such as infantry, can walk through the shield. This is an advantage when the Death Seed can deploy its troops, but if the enemy is able to get troops under the shield it is possible to interfere with mobilization, and cause damage. If the shield is destroyed during transit to the surface, it becomes a sitting target on the surface. Behind The Scenes The name "Death Seed" is taken from the disease in the Star Wars Universe that goes by the same name. The Death Seed Plague was 100% fatal except for very rare exceptions, and the Old Republic spend a great deal of effort to eradicate and contain the plague after it broke out. The Death Seed was actually caused by an insect, called a Droch that drained the life from the host. Similarly, the Death Seed was created to be a destroyer of life, and 100% effective in planetary invasion. Its shape resembles that of the classic "flying saucer," though this was unintentional. Category:Dreadnaughts Category:Ship Classes Category:Ships